STEM Sisters

🚀 2024 Recap: Empowering Women of Colour in STEM 🌟 Last year, STEM Sisters made incredible strides in empowering women of colour through our Mentoring Program, Ambassador Program, MAGNIFY magazine, BE YOU program, Future Me outreach, Soapbox Science events, and the inaugural Women of Colour in STEM Awards. Check out the highlights and dive into our blog post to learn more about these transformative initiatives! 🌱✨ https://lnkd.in/gBASDzPc #STEMSisters #WomenInSTEM #DiversityInSTEM #2024Highlights

Warm congratulations to Prof Fariba Dehghani on being honored with the Leadership Award at the Women of Colour in STEM Awards during the Celebrating Excellence event held at University of Melbourne on 5th December 2024.

Pioneering women of colour honoured at STEM Awards 2024 Read here: https://lnkd.in/gwvt5__4 Dr Amit Sarwal Pallavi Jain Jitarth Jai Bharadwaj Paul Watters PhD Shailendra Bahadur Singh, PhD. Sheba Nandkeolyar Dipen Rughani GAICD Irfan Malik (MAICD) Dr Ruwangi Fernando STEM Sisters Professor Asha Rao Indu Bala Chamindie Punyadeera Vivian WY Tam FTSE Catriona Vi Nguyễn-Robertson Harini Hapuarachchi Dr Maria Alejandra Pinero de Plaza, PhD Teresa Cochrane 🐨 Shama Islam Brenda Denbesten Sevvandi Kandanaarachchi Rashina Hoda Ed Husic MP Anthony Albanese

🌟 Celebrating Excellence: Women of Colour in STEM Awards Highlights 🌟 What an unforgettable evening! 🎉 The inaugural Women of Colour in STEM Awards brought together trailblazing women, allies, and industry leaders to celebrate the extraordinary contributions of women of colour across STEM fields. ✨ From inspiring stories of leadership and innovation to moments of recognition and connection, the event showcased these remarkable women's brilliance, resilience, and impact. A heartfelt thank you to our sponsors and partners—Monash University, Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Melbourne, Deakin University and the Australian Computer Society (ACS) for helping make this milestone event a reality. Your support drives the mission to foster diversity and inclusion in STEM. 📸 Relive the highlights and explore the event gallery here: https://lnkd.in/gZardmEF Together, we celebrate diversity, amplify voices, and inspire future generations to thrive in STEM! 💡 #WOCinSTEMAwards #DiversityInSTEM #WomenInSTEM #STEMSisters #CelebratingExcellence Ed Husic MP Department of Industry, Science and Resources Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Dr Ruwangi Fernando Ankita Ragesh Shaz Sivanesan

We are immensely grateful to Deakin University for their outstanding support as the proud sponsor of the Scientific Research Category at this year’s Women of Colour in STEM Awards. 🔬 Deakin University’s commitment to fostering innovative research and supporting emerging scientists aligns seamlessly with our mission to recognise and celebrate the incredible contributions of women in STEM. This partnership highlights the importance of diversity and the impact of groundbreaking scientific achievements. 🔗 Learn more about Deakin University here – https://lnkd.in/eJHSunyd Thank you for joining us in our mission to recognise and reward the brilliant minds leading the way in research. #STEMSisters #WOCInSTEMAwards

We are immensely grateful to the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology for their outstanding support as the proud sponsor of the Technology Trailblazer Category at this year’s Women of Colour in STEM Awards. 👩💻 The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at University of Melbourne is renowned for its dedication to fostering innovation and advancing technology. Their commitment to diversity and excellence aligns seamlessly with our mission to recognize and celebrate the transformative contributions of women of colour in STEM. 🔗 Discover more about the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology here – https://lnkd.in/gnkTu8sc Thank you for joining us in our mission to recognise and reward the brilliant minds leading the way in technology. #WOCinSTEMAwards #STEMSisters

🎅🔬 Santa's Lab Sydney: Inspiring Future Scientists! 🔬🎅 When did you first imagine becoming a teacher, pilot, chef, or scientist? For many of us, it all starts with a moment of inspiration. STEM Sisters NSW Ambassadors brought that spark of inspiration to life at Baulkham Hills North Primary School with Santa's Lab Sydney on December 3rd. Over three joyful hours, 120 kindergarten students became scientists, experimenting with: 🎄 Fizzing Trees 🥛 Santa's Magic Milk 🎅 Rudolph's Lava Lamp ✨ Jumping Tinsels Through hands-on activities, the children explored concepts like static electricity, molecules, and chemical reactions, discovering how exciting and accessible science can be. We’re incredibly proud of our NSW Ambassadors Kay Nagendra-Meynard, Francine Perrine-Walker, PhD, Nelum Attanayake, and Naisana Seyedasli, who led these activities and inspired young minds. Together, we showed these future STEM champions how science can be fun and impactful! A heartfelt thank you to the kindergarten teachers and the Principal of Baulkham Hills North Primary School for the opportunity to share the magic of STEM. We demonstrated how STEM careers—from computer science and engineering to stem cell biology and plant science—help solve real-world problems and make a difference. It’s moments like these that ignite a lifelong love for learning and science. Here's to inspiring the next generation of STEM advocates and leaders! 🌟 #STEM #STEMSisters #SantaLabSydney #InspiringFutureScientists #WomenInSTEM #STEMEducation #ScienceIsFun FUTURE ME AU

As we reflect on the recent Women of Colour in STEM Awards, we extend our deepest gratitude to ACS (Australian Computer Society), our event sponsor, for their generous support in bringing the Awards to life! Your support was crucial in making this celebration possible, allowing us to spotlight the extraordinary achievements of women of colour who are pioneers in their fields. We are so excited about what we can achieve together in the future! ✨ Finalist: https://lnkd.in/gscRsKy3 Winners: https://lnkd.in/gpXhmG3S #WOCinSTEMAwards #STEMSisters Rod Dilnutt Josh Griggs Helen McHugh Manjusha Bhakta Dolly Brtan Kelsey Capaldo Anshul Aggarwal Oliver Stenmark Josef Oduwo Adam Clarke, MACS

Finding your people - your community - is a really special thing. In some circles, I've not been Asian enough. In others, I've been too Asian. But STEM Sisters has become a treasured community to me, in which I am surrounded by people who embrace who I am. I have learned to be unapologetically me - and that's why I performed "This Is Me" at the #WOCinSTEMAwards night. I felt so emotional singing it to a crowd of people who I feel have helped me step into who I am. It was an absolute honour to be named a Rising Star alongside Harini Hapuarachchi - all of the finalists are such bright, talented, and incredible women, who I very much admire. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists! I look forward to watching them all achieve great things! This trophy is beautiful. As Ruwangi notes, "Women of colour" refers to so many different skin tones, and this glass reflects multiple colours of light as a representation of that. Thank you to all the people who lift me up, especially Onisha Patel for nominating me for this award. Thank you Dr Ruwangi Fernando for building this community. You saw a need for it and worked the hard yards for all of us. What a delight to be able to celebrate so many amazing people - and meet some people I've admired from afar. #WomenInSTEMM #WomenOfColor #WomenInSTEM #WomenEmpowerment

Join us in congratulating Dr Sevvandi Kandanaarachchi for winning the Mathematics Mastery Award at the inaugural Women in Colour STEM Awards! 👏 🏆 Sevvandi’s groundbreaking work in mathematical sciences is driving advancements in anomaly detection, complex networks, spatio-temporal data analysis, algorithm evaluation, and fairness in algorithms. We’d also like to celebrate Dr Muneera Bano, a finalist for the Technology Trailblazer Award, for her work and dedication to advancing diversity and inclusion in AI 👏 👏 When asked how this recognition could inspire others, especially young women of colour, to pursue STEM careers, Sevvandi said: "I want to tell all young women that STEM is awesome, it is exciting and cool. If you like it even just a bit, give it a chance. Together, we can use STEM to make the world a better place." Join us in applauding these outstanding researchers and role models! 🦾 The Women of Colour STEM Awards is an initiative of STEM Sisters. #DiversityInSTEM #WomenInSTEM